Hello, I will give as much background as i possible can. I rebuilt a 351w in a 1984 bronco. removed all smog propertys and removed cats. I had the block bored .030 over put in keith black unilite dished pistons(.030) over. had the crank reground -.010 and used the stock rods. new bearings installed. installed a high volume oil pump, modified the oil pan to accomidated. installed edelbrock performance plus cam w/ hydr. lifters. (#2182). I used the stock heads which were machined and valves reground for seating. a basic head cleanup job. I installed an edelbrock preformer intake Dual plane, NO EGR!!. and topped it with a 2" spacer using the 4 hole config. no binding of the throttle plates of the edelbrock 600 cfm electric choke carb. bought rebuilt by edelbrock themselves. I originally used the old stock dist. with motorcraft ign. (vac. adv.) but changed to a newer rebuilt one purchased from o'riellys. due to the prob. i am having. I installed new glass fuel filter which is elevated away from all hot areas of the motor. I purchased new cap and rotor, (the brass fittings one). o.k. the problems...
1. I checked for true TDC which did line up with marks and set timing to base 10 vac brought it to about 28 then mech brought it to 38ish. I had no starting power. the pick up power was horrible like dragging a herd of dead cows with a pinto. (no offense.) top speed seemed all right but poppy. just not the go i would expect. i play with the timing and the carb. adjustment and never can quite get it right, I adjusted the mixture screws according to the manual and set the idle to around 750. its either no power or good power with what sounds like speratic missing. so i advance the base to 18 which make total 45 or so. off the scale. pick up was wonderful but started to hear like valve clatter i think. real faint. might be pinging. when under load. by the way no wot power at all no matter how the timing is set. if i half gas it i get better pick up then a out right pedal to the floor. now in a.m. when choke is on i can hear missing but its spurratic no pattern to it.timing still set about 45 total. im now a little frustrated no money and a lot of work with no results. But i know if i can figure it out with your help it will be worth it. by the way I love the bronco and i always have people tell me about when they used to own one so its real cool. thanks for your help.

 

A bored 351, built and only running a 600 cfm carb? Seems like a 750 would be a better choice. anyway

Have you started with the basics, fuel pump/adequate flow? Plugs gapped properly?

Im not a pro with the cam numbers but maybe your cam makes its power higher in the band so no low end?

 

Thanks for the reply. The pump I put on it came from summit. It's rated to 8 psi. Which is high I believe, but the stock fuel pump gave me the same issue. However I did not check with a gauge I only see the full gas filter with no air present and assume its doing its job. Maybe small carb could be right I used the calculater on summit for cfm and it said 586 cfm so I assumed 600 was right. This is what has me baffled. Oh ya gap was checked before I installed plugs. Also I did change coil and used one from jegs. Believe it said 65,000 volt can style chrome caseing.

 

Cam said the range was idle to 5500. But no chance of getting that high right now. I will check the pressure of the pump not sure how to check actual flow but its pumping.

 

Since you swapped a bunch of parts at once you'll really have to just start double checking that each one is actually working properly. Do you still have stock coil?

i'd check the fuel at part and WOT to see if you're sucking all your fuel out and bogging down while the bowl refills.

Also is your dizzy working right? Mentioned that is was replaced, still vac advance? Contacts all there and good connection.

 

Yes sir still vac adv. Same dizzy just newer to make sure bearings and all are good. Will definitely check pump. Can't do till wed. When I get back in town but you gave me some where to start thanks. I will post results when I get them.

 

Update- I went back and reset timing. took top off edelbrock carb to check float levels, they were set wrong from manufacturer so i reset the floats . also had one needle installed upside down. lesson dont trust manufacturer to rebuild carb. correctly. moved primary jets to secondary and secondary to primary since the primary jets are bigger from factory. I put it together and intalled a $10 pressure gauge from autozone in the fuel line. pressure is running 6 to 8 psi fluxes a little on throttle. Added some octane boost to the fuel, it runs like a champ. the bad news runs the best with super unl. cuz of the higher octane. Was hoping to avoid the extra expense but the good sounds like an animal roaring. its hard to keep from gouging on the pedal now but so fun!! so super unleaded from now on.